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 Driving
along the autobahn between Munich and Ingolstadt, car drivers and their
passengers are confronted by unfamiliar new and different looking
traffic signs. But perhaps stranger still, apart from the new black and
white traffic signs, drivers on this stretch are now sharing this
extremely busy section of Germany’s autobahn with cars chauffeured by a
computer rather than a driver like you or me.
Perhaps unknown to non-regular A9 road users, this piece of autobahn now
doubles up as a real-world test track for all types of piloted vehicles.
A first hint, these new black and white traffic signs, located every 2.5
kilometres, allow these autonomous vehicles to determine and check their
exact location.
A likely first for Germany’s road users, these autonomously driven cars
will have a person seated behind the steering wheel, but their hands are
clearly not on the steering wheel.
These cars, despite an occupied driver’s seat, are driven entirely
autonomously.
Take pity on the poor front seat occupant, who in all likelihood must be
bored to death.
Quite simply, every task, including lane changes, is conducted entirely
by the installed robotic system.
And the human input?
Take control in a highly unlikely computer malfunction.
If old enough, cast your mind back to cult movie “2001- A Space
Odyssey”: Lean back and relax, HAL (computer) is doing the driving.
Just days after unveiling its all-new A8 flagship in Barcelona, offering
genuine hands-off piloted driving at speeds up to 60km/h, Audi is
already using its piloted test cars on one of Europe’s busiest
autobahns.
Anyone familiar with this stretch will know that this is ‘NOT’ a 60km/h
driving zone.
Audi, in yesterday’s press release, said on this autobahn stretch its
piloted test cars accelerate, brake and change lanes predictively and
smoothly while cooperating with other road users.
All this at speeds up to 130km/h.
An automotive engineer familiar with the technology, speaking to
AID on the condition of anonymity, said the proven technology is such
that today Audi’s test cars could do this 60 minute trip a “great deal
quicker”.
Before long, these autonomous Audi PR trips with invited guests,
starting today from Munich airport along the fast-flowing A9 autobahn to
Ingolstadt, could, barring legal hurdles, gradually creep up to
significantly higher speeds.
But when, theoretically speaking, today’s 60 minute routine trip will be
halved, allowing say 200km/h on the still unrestricted section of this
particular autobahn stretch, the car will still be piloted entirely by
the computer for the entire trip.
At these speeds it pays to keep at all times a jovial relationship with
Audi’s equivalent of the HAL 9000 computer!
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